Real With Me
by pulling my pigtails
Summary: Jim moves to Scranton during his senior year, and meets the quiet Pam Beesly, who prefers to keep to herself. He makes it his mission to try and break her from that.


So I've always wanted to do a take on Jim and Pam in high school, and all of that cute stuff. So here I go, finally!

Disclaimer: I own no one, sadly. Don't remind me.

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><p>It was just another day for Pam, hitting the snooze button more times than she could remember and then hurrying to get ready. Her parents were always out before her, so she always had to rely on herself, and Penny was usually out the door before Pam got in the shower. Penny was different. She was younger than Pam, a grade lower - but extremely friendly and overly energetic. Sometimes it made Pam sick. People were always so surprised that the two were related, well, the ones who knew who Pam was. A lot of people didn't know she existed, but that was probably her fault because she'd rather not talk to people. There had been people who tried before, but Pam either ignored them or replied with short words, her eyes avoiding theirs. She just wasn't great with people.<p>

Pam tied her hair back into a messy bun near the top of her head, putting on her black rimmed glasses and shrugging at her appearance, as she always did. She was wearing a tie dye v-neck shirt with a few painted handprints on the back, which she and the kids had made at work along, with some fitted black yoga crop pants. It was pretty much her usual clothes. She didn't bother dressing up, like it seemed everyone else did. She toasted herself a cinnamon bagel with butter and wrapped it in saran wrap to bring with her. She always got to chemistry a bit earlier than everyone else and would just eat it there. She didn't have time to now. She quickly got into her mom's car and headed to school. Being a senior, she got to use the parking lot. But having no car, sucked. Thankfully her parents agreed on riding to work in the same car, and Penny was always picked up by other friends, not that Pam cared.

She made her way into the school, dropping a few of her books into her locker before carrying the rest against her chest, her bagel in her free hand as she crossed through groups of people and dodged around every other random person. Didn't people know how to not be in the way? Once she entered class, she was surprised to see someone there. Normally, no one was until the bell rang. But this kid, she'd never seen before. And he was sitting next to her usual spot. She stood for a second, debating on picking a new seat just to get out of it, but no matter what, she'd end up sitting next to someone. She switched to balance her weight on her other foot before finally walking over - slowly, and placing her books down, a slight hesitant smile on her face before looking down and focusing on her bagel. How awkward.

Pam felt his eyes on her, and she knew it was probably most polite to turn and introduce herself, but she didn't want to give off the vibe of actually wanting to talk. She crossed one leg over the other and unwrapped her bagel, tearing a small piece off before he spoke.

"Uh," He seemed hesitant, but quickly continued as if he wasn't. "Am I in somebody's seat?"

"No. No one sits there." Pam stated, her voice quiet and her eyes remaining on her food.

"Oh, alright.." He paused, "Do you mind that I sit here? I can find somewhere else, if you'd like."

Pam paused, finally taking this time to look at him. Even sitting down, she could tell he was tall. She had to actually tilt her head up to look at him - it was crazy. He had shaggy brown hair, that could appear as messy but actually fit him quite well. He had hazel eyes, and the smallest hint of a smile, as if he didn't know how to act towards her. She wasn't exactly the warmest person, she wasn't a delight to talk to.

"Yeah. I mean, all the other seats are taken, so no matter what you'd have to sit here." She explained, before turning back away from him. "It's fine."

"Alright, thanks." He said quietly, Pam watching him turn foward out of the corner of her eye. "Oh!" He added, turning back towards her. "My names Jim Halpert, just.. so you know?" It sounded a bit like a question, as if he wasn't sure if she wanted to know or not.

"That's good to know."

"And you are...?"

She realized it wasn't a big deal to give him her name. They were going to be sitting together from now on, and he was going to figure it out anyway.

"Pam." She answered, placing another piece of the bagel in her mouth and wiping her hands together.

"Pam. Just Pam? No last name? You're just one of those people? Like Cher, or Jesus." He stopped, a slight laugh in his voice. He watched her closely, though she didn't turn towards him at all. She was different, and he could tell. She really didn't wanna talk - and he understood, but there was a part of him that couldn't shut up.

Jim moved from Philly last week, and he convinced his parents to enroll him back in school after they were finished packing. He wasn't keen on spending his senior year in Scranton - because senior year was supposed to be your best year. But now he didn't even know anyone.

Except Pam. But he barely even knew her. She wouldn't even give him her last name off the bat, as if he was going to kill her later. She'd looked at him once. It kind of bothered him, because he was a nice guy, but he knew he shouldn't take it to heart. She just looked like someone who didn't like to talk. But she also looked extremely interesting. She didn't look the typical girls who dressed up for high school as if it was a fashion show. And she had these glasses that were somewhat dorky, but on her they looked rather adorable. He just couldn't help but want to talk to her.

She looked like she wanted to smile at his comment, the corner of her lips tilted up slightly but then she quickly went back to her unphased state.

"Beesly."

"Beesly." He repeated, nodding his head. Pam Beesly. As he looked at her, he decided it fit her. It was a cute name, and she was a cute girl. Quiet, and clearly wasn't giving him the time of day. But cute either way. "That's a nice name."

"Thank you." She wasn't sure what this guy was trying to do. He seemed nice, sure. But wasn't it evident she didn't want to talk? Was this how it was going to be every morning? Forced into talking to someone? She wasn't used to this attention, nor was she used to someone trying to talk to her after she continued giving them short replies.

"You're welcome." He replied quickly, trying to tear his gaze away from her. It was difficult to do, but he did it. He watched people start piling in as the bell rang once, and he leaned against his seat. He noticed none of them even really looked at the pair of them, and he relaxed knowing that Pam was probably like this with everyone. Because if she wasn't, wouldn't some of the girls be all friendly and smiley towards her? But they weren't. They walked by. And Pam didn't seemed phased in the least.

"Pammy," Jim heard a voice behind him, deep. He turned slightly, seeing a guy who he could immediately label as a jock. It was obvious. He was sitting at the table behind them, and he had a friend next to him that looked just as annoying.

"Hey, he's talking to you." Jim muttered to Pam, looking over at her.

"Shh. Just pretend he's not." She muttered back, studying her pale pink painted nails. Jim couldn't help but smirk as he started pulling out his notebook from his backpack instead.

"Pam, Pam, I know you can hear me." He was insistent, but so was Pam. She let out a long sigh, stretching her arms over her head and then at her side, careful not to knock Jim out in the process. "You know one of these day's you're going to let me take you out, right? These guys don't know what they're missing. You're one of those girls, you know? Like.. they take off their glasses and stuff and they're hot. I can see right through to you."

Jim placed his chin in the palm of his hand, his fingers trying to block his mouth so it wasn't obvious he was trying not to laugh. "C'mon, Pam. That was quite the line." Jim whispered sarcastically, glancing at her and catching her smirking in the process. It wasn't quite a smile, but it still looked good on her.

"He does this every day. It's pathetic. It's not even a compliment, what kind of compliment is that?" She whispered back, her shoulders shrugging in annoyance. Roy was on the football team, and he thought that he was the hottest thing the school had to offer. For some odd reason, for the past year, Roy had his eye on Pam. Oh, and the other girls that he also got with. But still, he thought he could get something out of her. She'd maybe spoke two words to him all year. She wasn't into him, and she never would be. Not her type, not even close.

It really wasn't a compliment, Jim thought she looked great in the glasses, too. What was so bad with them? She looked artistic, and classy, though he'd never say that out loud.

"It's not the best of compliments." Jim paused, turning towards her with a soft smile. "I like your glasses, though." He couldn't stop himself. It wasn't like she was going to kill him. Well, he hoped not.

Pam dropped her hands into her lap and turned her head towards him, the smallest of smiles on her face. "Thank you."

The rest of the class went by pretty slow, and there weren't many moments for Jim to try and talk to Pam. He swore chemistry was mostly just ongoing lectures, because that's all the professor seemed to be doing. He took more notes than he'd ever wanted to, and also found out there was a test on Friday on all things he was going to be lecturing about this week, and last week. Jim hesitated in that moment, looking from the professor, and then to Pam.

"Uh, did he say last week too?" He whispered quickly, glancing down at her notebook where she had notes and random drawings. Random drawings that looked pretty cool. They were just shapes and things off to the side, but it was something he couldn't do just in the midst of taking notes.

"Yeah." She whispered back, and then realized exactly why he'd asked. "Oh, right. You weren't here last week." She looked up at the clock, realizing it was just a few minutes before they were to leave. She flipped through her notebook and folded down one page before shutting it and slipping it to him. "You can use mine, if you want. Just copy them down... Start from where I folded that page down, and you should be good."

Jim immediately smiled, taking her notebook and placing it on top of his now closed one. It was stupid, it was just a notebook, but hey, she could have ignored him instead of helping. "Thanks, I'll have it back tomorrow in one piece, I swear."

"Yeah, you better. But uh, if there's things you don't understand.. you can ask me or something. I mean, sometimes I only write half of what he said down, because I already know the other thing, or I'll just remember it.. you know?" She explained, her eyes on her bag instead of him. It was then Jim realized she just didn't like making eye contact, at least not with him.

"Well, maybe you could just... get your number, so I could ask you that way so I'm not confused." He knew he should stop talking, but he couldn't. It fit, right? It didn't look like he was hitting on her, though he'd be lying if he said he wasn't gonna use it to his advantage - whether he understood things or not.

Pam eyed him hesitantly, as if studying whether he was worth getting her number or not. He almost felt like shivering under her gaze, he'd never been looked at so hard before. "Okay." She finally spoke, opening her notebook and writing her cell phone number on the top of the page. Just as she finished, the bell rang, and she looked up at him with one of those half smiles, "Good luck." She stated softly before picking up her books and heading out before anyone else got the chance to even get out of their seats.

And that's the moment Jim knew he was going to spend every moment he could, in getting Pam Beesly to smile.

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><p>Please review and let me know what you think!<p> 


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